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Off My Chest @lemmy.world
Shampoo_Bottle @lemmy.ca

I'm tired, as an older Gen Z. I'm over it.

I get it, ok? Gen Z's reputation isn't great. Many people see us as lazy, unmotivated, and broken.

Can you seriously blame anyone who is a millenial or younger? Be honest with yourself here. If you really have to compare the war times to say that these generations had it easy, your metrics are messed up to begin with. That is a terrible bar.

Many people are heavily thinking about using services like MAID (Canada) when they get old because they know that they'll never be able to retire, even if they work 50+ hours every week.

An entire generation is being written off, despite the fact that some of them are barely even in high school. Who was supposed to teach these kids how to act, and what to know? Who was supposed to guide them? You don't just get life skills from a box of cheerios.

I'm heavily disappointed with a certain group of Millenials for following the exact same things that they've complained about for multiple years. You can't complain about being judged as an entire generation while also complaining about another entire generation without being a hypocrite. Millions of people are usually not a single monolith, sorry to tell you. You are not an exception. No one is.

I do feel lucky in the sense that Millenials dispelled the "American dream" way before I had a chance to hope for it, although I do feel unlucky in the sense that that hope was never there to begin with. It's felt grim since elementary school, and it's just gotten worse. "Look at all of these bad problems that we'll leave you to solve, well after it's financially or environmentally feasible!" Yet, supposedly young people are dramatic for complaining about it. Hell, a lot of us can't even legally vote yet. Do we have to follow the footsteps of France?

People actively and happily ignore science everywhere. In fact, many older adults have recently tried to LOWER education funding, yet these same people will still choose to blame the kids when they don't magically know things.

There has been a massive uptick in mental health issues in young people. Instead of wondering "What caused that?", many people are very eager to just dismiss it all as kids being dramatic. A handful of kids, maybe, but THIS many? You're kidding yourself. You should keep thinking about the "why". Why are so many kids too depressed to function at a basic level?

Let's see here:

I'll probably never be able to retire.

I'll probably never be able to own a home.

People are still actively ignore environmental change, yet they whine about the price of foods going up. (Look at how the farmers are faring this year ffs)

People actively fight medical science.

People actively fight to control the lives of complete and total strangers.

I'm done pretending it's all ok. I'm done acting complacent for random people to feel better about doing nothing for decades. I'm done dealing with it. Aside from my loved ones and my hobbies, what is there to look forwards to? I know people who have a freaking masters degree, yet they're stuck working in fast food. University is NOT a magical "fix-all" solution. That poor dude is paying off that schooling with a minimum wage job. There are only so many high paying jobs.

We're expected to care about everyone else's struggle but our own. We're expected to just deal with it in silence. All for the sake of older generation's egos? I think the fuck not. I fuck up all the time. If you do, you should own up to it. I'll always respect someone who owns their mistakes WAY more than someone who just pushes the blame down.

Don't lie to us and tell us that life is better than it's ever been. If you truly believe life is fully affordable on these wages, donate everything you have to charity and start from scratch. No degree, work experience, nothing. If it's so easy, do it. Just do it. Please, start all over again if it's so easy. Show us. Let's see how long you last, especially if you're single.

Be angry at me, idk. I am not alone in feeling like this, by a long shot. This collective anger will just keep growing. You can't just brash people into being happy. That's a great way to get ignored.

Again, this is aimed towards the people who say those things. Awesome people are in every generation.

62 comments

  • Man, that sucks that you're getting all that flak about your generation. I'll be honest - I'm surprised to hear it; myself and every other millennial I know is so proud of gen Z. You guys are such genuinely no-nonsense people, it's really refreshing.

    I've got a few gen Z coworkers now, and I'm always surprised how they can nonchalantly swear in front of their supervisors, and just straight-up say when too much is being asked of them. And they do it with such confidence that nobody confronts them about it! It's nice to see a generation that hasn't been beaten into submission by the rhetoric that they need to grovel at the feet of anyone that society claims is their "superior."

    I don't have a lot of hope for the future of my country, or the world at large, but I think that if anyone can find a way to bring people together and make a change, it's you guys. I wish it wasn't something that needed to be hoisted upon your shoulders, but I really don't see millennials making that kind of positive change. And if y'all want to say "Fuck no, I'm not doing all that." I'd say fair enough, and still think highly of you.

    The world sucks, and every generation knows that better than the last. Don't let people who had it easier than you tell you that you should be someone you're not.

  • Elder millennial checking in…

    I’m sorry we haven’t been able to do more to make the world better.

    Stick with me little bro, I’ll pave the best path I can so you can march on after my time has passed.

    • Youngest Gen X/Millennial cusp, here.

      OP blames Millennials. I blame Boomers. Boomers don't blame Silents. Boomers got the boon, but it's not their fault either.

      WWI and WWII created an unprecedented opportunity and glut of wealth. That wealth drove greed. Greed motivated bad behavior, which eroded the notion of worker loyalty in lieu of profits. More greed broke wage and productivity models, broke company loyalty, broke common decency... Rinse, lather, repeat, ad nauseum.

      We're all fucked. I wake up nightly when I don't smoke enough weed to keep me sedated. I wake up and wonder why I try daily. I'm treading water. For a pittance.

      Fuck our government. Not boomers. Not Gen X. Not Millennials. Not Gen Z. Fuck corporations. Fuck politicians. Fuck the police. Fuck our systemic need for validation and fame.

      Fuck.

      • It's a bit late, but I don't think you saw my edit. I don't blame any one person, expect the people who DO say those things.

        Amazing people come from every generation and every walk of life. I'm not going to write of millions and millions of people off of the actions of a few bad apples.

        I think I would feel like I failed as a person if I did, to be honest. There are way too many nuanced situations and too many different life stories to even try to fit so many people into one box. That's the exact problem that I was talking about.

        No large group is a monolith. Please ignore the poor phone grammar and reread the post, including the edit. I did not blame Millenials for the state of things. I am just disappointed in the specific ones who do the same things that they complained abour boomers doing. That is not all Millenials, and if you happen to feel like it is, you should meet more Millenials. Awesome people come from every background.

        If EVERY single older person was bad, WWII would have ended in a much worse state than it did.

  • to be fair the media seem to love creating this generational divide. we had our fair share and you will too.

    divide and conquer, i guess.

  • Millennial here. Your complaints are absolutely justified. FWIW, I fucking love zoomers. At the workplace, y'all are consistently the happiest (infectiously so!), while simultaneously refusing to just bend over and take the bullshit that the rest of us have been conditioned into. We lost or never had the self respect that zoomers wield like fucking armor.

    Can't really pitch a good outlook for things like the climate disaster or neonazis coming out of the woodwork. We're kinda fucked there. And you're fucked even harder. And your kids are beyond fucked. Etc.

    But even within the turd this planet is becoming, there are still a few gems. YOU give me a hope that not much else does now-a-days: if we can survive long enough to meaningfully tackle the climate, then we can tackle the toxic elements of our society too, and y'all are already pros at that.

    👊

  • I mean, hey, that's how Gen X was viewed. Lazy slackers with no faith in the system. You're in good company.

  • Take comfort in the fact that everyone who hated Elvis didn't change their minds, they just got old and died. No one thinks Elvis is literally the devil anymore.

    Eventually people who fawn after and put up with billionaires will eventually get old and die, falling into the minority and become forgotten.

    • I mean, I know I'm raining on an already pretty despairing post, here, in times that very well do lend themselves to despair, but that sentiment has been around as long as I've been alive and I'd bet good money decades longer. It's probably one of those sentiments that's as old as people.

      But no one (or at least, comparatively very few) was rewarded for hating Elvis. He hasn't been a thing in a long time. Same with any other risque entertainer that was also satan, they fall by the wayside after everyone gets bored. People are rewarded very well when they bend over for billionaires. As long as sociopathy is rewarded, there will always be rampant sociopathy.

      I'm not saying it's so ingrained that there's no point in fighting it -- forcibly changing the culture is of the utmost importance, especially now. But that sentiment, the battle plan can't just be "wait around and it will work itself out." It's not like billionaires either of the actual or the temporarily embarrassed sort don't have kids. I'm starting to see that's the fatal flaw the more liberal-minded seem to have. It's like we believe so hard that everyone is inherently good and that things will work out in the end that we never bother to make a move. It's the death of us.

62 comments